Abstract: For the past 60 years, tackifiers have been used in petroleum – based oils for application that include chain conveyor lubricants, saw oils, way lubricants and greases. Tackifiers are typically polymeric additives that impact tick or stringiness to a lubricant. It may be sued to provide adherence in Way oils and chain lubricants, added stringiness in greases, and anti-mist properties to metalworking fluids. This anti-mist feature is becoming more important as the laws concerning workplace safety have become more stringent. The molecule of choice is polyisobutylene which is made by the polymerization of isobutylene. Other mineral oil soluble polymers such as olefin copolymers (OCP’s) can also be used.

A discussion of polyisobutylene based tackifiers for mineral oil based systems will be presented first, and will be extended to vegetable based systems using the same mechanistic framework. The bio-based polymers studied are polyisoprene (PIP) and polybutadiene (PB). Because of their unsaturation these polymers possess both biodegradability and solubility in vegetable oils.

Biography:Dan Vargo has been active in the lubricants industry for over 30 years. 28 years spent as a research chemist for the Lubrizol Corporation. He is currently the Senior Research Chemist at Functional Products, Inc., a manufacturer of products for the lubricant market located in Macedonia, Ohio. Dan is active in STLE and currently is a Technical Editor of STLE’s Publication of TLT Magazine. He holds a BS in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University.